Hugg Your Mother (Earth)

I like to think I'm environmentally conscious. For me it has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with common sense: Who doesn't want clean air to breathe and water to drink? I want to go to...

I like to think I'm environmentally conscious. For me it has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with common sense: Who doesn't want clean air to breathe and water to drink? I want to go to the beach and be able to go swimming, not stand back and watch the sludge roll in, or go hiking and actually see some wilderness. I try to keep on top of environmental news and events, so I know what I can do to help keep the air clean, the water fresh, and the birds singing until long after I'm gone. That's where Hugg comes in. Hugg is a new social news site that uses the Digg model to keep readers up to date on environmental news, green companies and products, and do-it-yourself projects to make a difference in your own backyard.

The site works just like Digg; members sign up (it's free) and submit their own news stories, to be ranked by other members of the community. Anyone can submit news to Hugg, and news on the site is broken up into several categories, including transportation, energy, gifts, science, and take action. The community is small right now, but enough stories are submitted that the news on the front page changes regularly. If the front page articles are too stale for you, Hugg has a queued story area, where you can see the dozens of stories being submitted to the site as soon as they appear, view them, and rate them yourself.

As much as I like reading what everyone else finds interesting, diving into the queued section gives me a chance to see projects that might not make it to the front page, or an early look at news that will likely make the front page within hours. Unfortunately, you also have to deal with non-topical stories when you head into the queued section, like the one I saw about how to save a marriage. Useful, I'm sure, but not really applicable to the site. As the community grows, those are the kinds of stories that will likely wind up being filtered out.

Speaking of odd stories, users get "karma," to avoid people spamming the system. As stories gather Huggs, only the good ones get to the front page. So far, some of those quality stories have been about the IPO of a Chinese wind power companies with designs on the American market, tips on how to be a green, rugged man like Indiana Jones, and my personal favorite, green beer. If I can have a frosty beverage and save the planet at the same time, I consider that a win-win.

Brian Heater has worked at a number of tech pubs, including Engadget, Laptop, and PCMag (where he served as Senior Editor). Most recently, he was as the Managing Editor of TechTimes.com. His writing has appeared in Spin, Wired, Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, The Onion, Boing Boing, Publishers Weekly, The Daily Beast and various other publications. He hosts the weekly Boing Boing interview podcast RiYL, has appeared as a regular NPR contributor and shares his Queens apartment with a rabbit named Lucy.
More »